This invention relates to cigarettes, and in particular to such cigarettes having a tobacco containing rod and a filter element attached to one end thereof.
Popular smoking articles such as cigarettes have a substantially rod shaped structure and include a charge of smokable material such as tobacco surrounded by a wrapper such as paper thereby forming a tobacco rod. Typically, blends of tobacco materials are employed in cigarette manufacture. However, it is desirable to employ blends including certain amounts of reclaimed, reconstituted or processed tobaccos in order to reduce the cost of the ultimate product. It has been desirable to provide cigarettes having cylindrical filters aligned in an end-to-end relationship with the tobacco rod. Typically, filters are constructed from fibrous materials such as cellulose acetate and are attached to the tobacco rod using a circumscribing tipping material.
Typical cigarettes include tobacco rods having lengths which range from about 50 mm to about 85 mm, and filter elements which abut one end of the tobacco rod and have lengths which range from about 20 mm to about 35 mm. The tipping material circumscribes the filter element and an adjacent region of the rod. Typically, tipping materials extend from about 20 mm to about 40 mm along the length of the cigarette. The inner surface of the tipping material is adhesively secured to the outer surface of the filter element and to the wrapper of the tobacco rod. The tipping material circumscribes the rod over a longitudinal length which is sufficient to provide good attachment of the filter element to the tobacco rod. In addition, for most practical applications, the tipping material acts as limiting factor in determining the length to which the tobacco rod is smoked. Typically, the tipping material extends from about 3 mm to about 6 mm along the length of the tobacco rod.
When a filter cigarette is employed, the tobacco rod generally is burned to within about 3 mm of the tipping material. Such a practice can tend to leave remaining at a minimum about 6 mm to about 9 mm of unused tobacco material. As the remaining tobacco material generally is of high quality, such a practice is wasteful and not highly cost effective.
In view of the deficiencies attendant in the manufacture of filter cigarettes, it would be highly desirable to manufacture in a highly cost effective manner a cigarette having a high quality tobacco material wherein the aforementioned waste of the high quality tobacco material is minimized.